It is a growing trend for supermarkets and especialty stores to feature displays of bulk foods in which the customer is permitted to select and package a desired quantity of goods. Thus, the customer is permitted to selectively purchase goods so that the customer receives the feeling that he has purchased the best or freshest possible goods. A further advantage is that the customer is liberated from the weight and freshness limitations of packaged food products. A still further advantage is that by allowing the customer to serve himself, there is no need for an employee to package and stack such packaged goods so that the store limits its overhead costs, which savings may be passed on to customers.
It has also been found that allowing the customer in a theater to dispense any quantity he or she chooses from a display greatly increases sales of candy.
Prior art display dispensers of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,718,578, 4,889,263, and 5,105,991; and in British Patent Application No. GB 2,219,279A.
It has been found that these display dispensers have several disadvantages. Among them are the following:
A multiplicity of small parts are required to construct a dispenser;
The dispensing chutes' closures are complicated, hard to use, and cause spillage;
The dispensers, when disposed in two rows one above the other, are constructed of distinctly different parts;
The dispensers use parts that may be removed by unauthorized persons;
The dispensers may be opened and product removed by unauthorized persons;
The dispensers may not be secured when not in use against unauthorized dispensing or entry.
Vertically oriented reservoirs above the dispensers present a poor appearance when not full.